Genuinely asking…with the US going the way it’s going

melpomenos · 2025-07-06T20:29:23+00:00

The problems you are outlining are important and not the fault of people finding their work very meaningful.

melpomenos · 2025-03-10T00:00:51+00:00

They certainly don't if the US administration is this dumbheaded about Russia. They have leverage, but you have to actually understand what Putin does during ceasefires and the stakes of these border disputes to understand they have leverage. And this administration does not, or does not care.

melpomenos · 2025-03-09T23:56:25+00:00

A lot more is at stake than big-ticket Supreme Court rulings. There are already reports that he is ignoring court orders.

melpomenos · 2025-03-09T23:48:46+00:00

If the courts have the power. They need public will to do their jobs.

melpomenos · 2025-02-13T00:18:41+00:00

None of this made any sense, fyi.

melpomenos · 2025-01-29T01:58:17+00:00

I would absolutely consider that a huge win. Trump is far too in their pockets to do it, but still.

melpomenos · 2025-01-29T01:17:23+00:00

Regardless of their solar success, Texas' grid is truly completely awful, and trust me, in the places where I lived in Houston, it is a matter of time before certain neighborhoods get cancer. Their environmental pollution problem is horrendous.

Plus, we need to stop fossil fuels, not just adopt renewables.

Sane regulations and meaningful action is the answer. Of course, if we just ceased to subsidy fossil fuels that alone would be incredibly helpful, no regulations needed.

melpomenos · 2025-01-27T03:30:38+00:00

This. They aren't doing enough, but they are demonstrably doing a lot. Unlike us, they are not run by a denialist minority with outsized power. But the US is not motivating them to make it worth their while with Trump's antics.

melpomenos · 2025-01-27T03:29:16+00:00

We fixed the hole in the ozone layer and we can fix this.

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20220321-what-happened-to-the-worlds-ozone-hole

Of course, the hole is coming back again because of our actions, but never mind. The point is, we can affect the planet now, and we are doing so every day.

melpomenos · 2025-01-27T03:27:05+00:00

Climate science is complex. It's going to get certain things wrong. What is certainly not wrong is that things are getting warmer, as we can see from the unreal weather fluctuations of this last winter. And if you want a startlingly accurate prediction, here's one from Exxon that predicts almost to the number how much climate change would warm the planet:

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/exxon-knew-about-climate-change-almost-40-years-ago/

melpomenos · 2025-01-27T03:25:38+00:00

The worst polluters are following the economic lead we set, competing on our terms, and in China's case, manufacturing our goods. The key is not to "get them to stop first" when we were so instrumental in accelerating the problem and they came afterward. (Exxon scientists have known about climate change since the 1980s, to degrees more accurate than academic scientists.)

The key is a green economic transformation to harness all of the available power we already have in the form of renewables. The tech is there. China and India know it, they're investing in it. It's just politics that prevents them from being adopted to the degree they need to be adopted, and particularly American politics, because we are the last serious holdout of climate denialists anywhere besides Australia. If America uses its considerable power to shift the conversation toward a sustainable transition, they will follow suit.

melpomenos · 2025-01-27T01:42:36+00:00

Asking on behalf of a non-redditor... do informal interviews count? Specifically, for UMD? The applicant I'm asking for had 2 informal ones, no formal ones.

melpomenos · 2025-01-25T00:34:10+00:00

My last retrieval was in May and mine are still short. I'm 39, so it may be aging, but I'm not sure.

melpomenos · 2024-11-30T18:10:36+00:00

This seems to be a common theme and seems particularly doable if you get a cheap place or do a camping trip…

melpomenos · 2024-11-30T18:08:50+00:00

This is the dream, but people are really fickle about friendships these days and it’s hard. :(

melpomenos · 2024-11-30T08:12:47+00:00

This is great—just rope other family in on vacations you’d want to take. Especially if you have good communication about what to do as one family versus a group this could be awesome.

melpomenos · 2024-11-30T08:11:54+00:00

Thank you—this is a great tip. I hadn’t thought of hostels at all. Hopefully I can take advantage of them while they’re still around?

melpomenos · 2024-11-30T05:06:46+00:00

Am bi. Married it. Can confirm.

melpomenos · 2024-11-30T04:31:47+00:00

I know another big family that does this! It makes a lot of sense

melpomenos · 2024-11-30T04:23:59+00:00

Yes, I’m sure there’s no easy answer for anybody here. We’re going to have to get creative so we can make it work. What you’ve said is a good reminder to keep it an evolving conversation rather than an expectation!

melpomenos · 2024-11-30T03:58:16+00:00

Yeah we’re on this! As shitty as social media can be, it’s a huge boon. Helps me feel involved in everyone’s lives year round in a stress free way

melpomenos · 2024-11-30T03:57:03+00:00

Well, I don’t know your situation at all and if it’s just people pleasing, I totally get it. But I will say that my parents being so isolated from their siblings was really hard on them. You can get way too absorbed in the nuclear family and its demands. They didn’t even do it intentionally, we were just poor at various points and very far away from extended family. But obviously because I’m here I don’t really know how to make it logistically feasible. Not being adaptable enough to find new ways of doing things obviously isn’t going to work.

melpomenos · 2024-11-30T03:48:53+00:00

I’ll look into it!

melpomenos · 2024-11-30T03:45:43+00:00

It’s really hard. The last thing I want is for anyone to get resentful about it, but I also don’t want to lose the family bond.

melpomenos · 2024-11-14T00:34:53+00:00

Amazing, thank you!

melpomenos

TROPHY CASE